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Stuart Shenkman, a sixty-three-year-old in a black Teamsters Local 237 jacket, was standing outside Yankee Stadium last night, asking anyone who would listen, “Do you know why the Yankees are going to win?”

I didn’t, so I bit. “Why?”

“Well, there’s a Democrat in the White House, and the Yankees haven’t lost a World Series with a Democrat since ’64.”

It was an elegant theory, though it ignored earlier losses, under F.D.R. and J.F.K. But nineteen of the Yanks’ twenty-six titles have come under Democrats. Their last appearance in the World Series fell during George W. Bush’s first term—and the outcome wasn’t much better—so Shenkman and many others were eager for tickets to Game One last night.

Among the swarm of scalpers greeting them was Jerry Henderson. He lives just down 163rd Street, and has been scalping at the stadium since Muhammad Ali beat Ken Norton during the Ford Administration. Henderson had plenty to say about business today, most of which boiled down to: It stinks. “For a playoff game? I used to make seven hundred dollars a ticket, easy,” he said. “Tonight, I can’t get three hundred dollars. People are more worried about feeding their families.”

Another scalper blamed the rain. The Internet is also a problem (as John Seabrook explained in The New Yorker earlier this year.) Ticket-seekers were being “frugal” on Craigslist as well, although one woman—a Phillies fan—was arrested for supposedly offering sex for a ticket.

The police were looking for tickets, too: undercover cops with handcuffs clipped to their belts were on all corners of 161st and River Avenue. (An officer, when asked how many policemen were present, seemed genuine in responding, several times, “A lot.”). One cautious scalper sent customers into the bathroom of a McDonald’s to complete deals.

Shenkman decided to drop out of the ticket market. He was confident in his theory, and happy with his view of both ballparks. “I went to plenty of games over there,” he said, pointing to the ghostly silhouette of the old stadium. “There will be plenty more in this one.”